Reflections from an African diasporan in the global media landscape

I am diasporan in the broadest sense of the word. My ancestral lines come from three different continents - Africa, Asia & Europe - blended together in the Caribbean. Years ago my family moved from Surinam to Holland. I was born in a white Christian town where we were the first example of a black middle class family on its way to becoming as Dutch as possible. I was seen as a child of immigrants who would want to have her piece of the pie. Meaning: have a decent education and a well-paid job so as to rise up on the social economic ladder. Little did I realize then that I had every right to claim my piece of the pie. Not only because I was born in Holland, but also because my family has been a part of the Dutch kingdom for centuries; ever since the African, European and Asian ancestors made their contributions to building up the Dutch colonies, as slaves, slave owners and migrant workers. However, people in Holland know very little about what had taken place in far away places like Surinam. They know very little about our common history and how I came to live among them, with this skin color and speaking so eloquently in Dutch. Therefore, my multi racial background was never really valued or appreciated in society. It was seen as complex or a trap. A trap between cultures because I did not fit in anywhere. Today I will tell you how privileged I am with my “complex” background and how it has shaped my work as a journalist.

It was quite a challenge to function as a diasporan in a formal Westernized setting where one has to constantly deal with mis-conceptions, outdated frameworks and assumptions about minorities. During my last years in the Dutch media industry I was an Africa-specialist in major newsrooms for the national news channel. It was not easy to convince senior producers when choosing different angles or voices in a story. At the same time I had to build up my own understanding of the Mother continent. My best source was the African diaspora in Holland. Throughout the years I have met students, artists, writers, academics, local politicians, entrepreneurs and also fellow media workers who formed my viewpoint tremendously. I learned through them about the significance of South-Sudan’s independence, the influence of Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat and the change makers among the up coming black generation. You could not label these rich sources with words like ‘immigrant’, ‘refugee’ or ‘poor’. They represented much more than that, they represent human strength. 

Not everybody in the media houses I worked for had a narrow minded way of thinking. There was always a single colleague or even a supervisor who understood why I tried to open up people minds’ to the viewpoint of the diasporan. On issues that concerned the black communities especially, I counted on their support to go beyond the standards in journalism. With their encouragement I began to address racial issues in society. It is worth noting that the larger section of Dutch media is reluctant to take on stories that spoke about self-reflection and self-criticism. They did not want to end up in ugly discussions about race, in where white people became the perpetrators and black people the victims. They could not see beyond the duality of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Except for some outlets, like the Nieuwe Liefde, an opinion magazine that unfortunately no longer exists. I knew the chief editor from college; we were from the same generation of journalists. She asked me back then to analyze the race debate that was heating up during the 150^th commemoration of the abolishment of slavery. Which the black community in Holland celebrates tomorrow by the way, the first of July. It became the longest and most profound story I had ever done as a writer. I talked about a healing process that we - black and white - are going through at the moment, in where all the dirt and wounds of the past were exposed. Nobody in society could run away from that. My essay got little attention, despite the bravery of the chief editor. It made me wonder if was working for the right public.

It was at the Africa desk at Radio Netherlands Worldwide that I started working for an African audience, with great joy. I did reporting and documentaries for shows like Bridges With Africa and Africa In Progress. Beautiful programs in where the listener was taken around the continent. Also the newsrooms at RNW were very diverse with English and French speaking journalists from various backgrounds. During that period I explored my newfound audience and began to understand the common experiences of the African diaspora on a global scale. There were many moments that I felt strongly connected to Africans and African descendants from other European countries as well as the United States and the Caribbean. With our common thoughts and ideas we wanted to break down barriers and break through ceilings. There was so much we could do, together, in equal partnership. So when I left for a month to work in Sierra Leone, I hooked up with a local radio station: Cotton Tree News, in Freetown. I started working with one of the junior reporters on the Charles Taylor case that was about to conclude. The young reporter became my translator, my stringer and my protégée. Indeed we worked on an equal level: our reports for RNW were put on air attributed to both our names. Our friendship exceeded my time in Sweet Salone. We keep in touch through the internet and today he works as a radio trainer in Juba (South Sudan). This is just one example out of many strong connections I found within the African diaspora.  

But also the wonderful stories I had done for RNW were about to end. Despite the good intentions of the producers, there was a distance between the media house, its audience and me. The dominant view remained that the work is about the Dutchman who wanted something with Africa. Of course, a look at the history of RNW shows that the agenda of the government rules. The Minister for Development finances the whole enterprise. Conversations about their programs are done with state officials and not with (African) listeners. Even the workers at RNW would sometimes wonder if the many FM-stations around the continent really played our shows on air. Every week a new package of radio material was sent out to the so-called local partners. But can you really speak of partnership when a newsroom in Holland mainly decides the content, where only a few Africans work and only a few people had actually been on the continent. My travel to Sierra Leone was entirely my initiative and also funded by myself. Media houses in Holland would rarely encourage collaborations like that because they simply do not believe in it. Too many unreliable people and uncertain working conditions in those far away places. Only as a freelancer could I take on jobs like that one and to be honest, I also prefer it that way.  

The freedom to travel, make my stories and build up a network of African diasporans means everything to me. It has even made me decide to pack my bags and move to a country in the tropics where I could go to work every day wearing a summer dress. A country with enough press freedom and a vibrant media to innovate and to take my profession to another level. A country that could re connect me with my undefined African roots. A country like Ghana. Of course it took me three years to make a decision like that. To leave the comfort of Holland and choose to stay in a so-called third-world country where I would live on a local salary in a society with all its difficulties. Such as bad transportation, an unstable currency, everyday corruption and many prejudices about foreigners. It is absolutely with no doubt the most challenging endeavor I ever took in my life and therefore also the most satisfying one. If I look back at those fifteen years in the Dutch media industry, I can see that it has all led to this major step. If I really want to stir things up, be closely connected with my audience, if I really want to understand my African identity and tell stories from a broader perspective then I need to be in this society. I need to experience the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ of it and find the underlying meaning of it.

So I found a job at a homegrown Ghanaian institution, the African University College of Communications, where I run the radio studio and teach Broadcast Journalism. My new environment also gave birth to a series of articles and columns for a popular magazine in Suriname, Parbode. In there I write about Ghana. In the eyes of the ordinary Surinamese people Ghana is like all the other African countries: poor and corrupt. To change a dominant concept like that takes time. All they know are the images in the global media. That is where my role as a journalist from and for the diaspora comes in. Not by simply drawing positive images of the society but by placing Africans in a human perspective in where we can relate to one another. I will come with a nice illustration for that one. It has been said that during the transatlantic slave trade a lot of Africans who ended up in Surinam came from the Gold coast. Therefore the afro-Surinamese people often look upon the Ashanti’s kings as the ones 'who sold their own brothers and sisters’. I have witnessed an emotional debate among people from the Caribbean who forced a Ghanaian journalist to take on responsibility for what happened during the colonial period. It was just another example of how the past still hunts us down. We are absolutely not done with it. In response I wrote in Parbode about one of the slave forts at the Gold coast that use to be a Dutch headquarter. I talked about war captives, torn apart families and how the practice of slavery became a racial matter with the arrival of the Europeans. I use myself as an eyewitness in these stories to create historical awareness about our African roots. As a journalist from the African diaspora you are constantly looking for comparisons and communalities. 

After two years working and living in Ghana I can honestly say that I don’t regret replacing the bigger news platforms for the smaller local media. I learn more about making radio because there we have to build everything up from scratch. When I started in 2014 the campus broadcasting was dead. Nothing was going on anymore. My predecessor resigned unexpectedly and handed over nothing more than the keys of the studio. The first few months I pushed with another passionate journalism lecturer to re-do the whole place. It took us a lot of talking and convincing the authorities for a substantial investment to be made in the studio. In the end we got money for at least 2 new microphones, a working console and new carpet and paint. I had to operate as a technician and double as a sound engineer, something I had never done before in my career as a radio journalist. Our only technical support was the it-department and a temporary satellite builder from outside campus. Our work paid off. It paid off so well that the school did not think we needed anymore investments. And without a frequency it was hard to make another stand. So what do you do? We went online and started broadcasting in the school’s hallways and restaurant. With the help of Radiokit, a Polish software-specialist in radio technology, we now have our own website with a fancy podcast gallery and more than 800 Facebook followers. These experiences in the radio field are priceless. Especially for somebody coming from a privileged background like Holland where everything is taken care of and nobody is really being forced to be innovative and come up with new ideas.

I absolutely began to develop a new passion for community radio stations. I want to create one out of our campus studio at AUCC. Precisely because commercial broadcasting is growing fast in Ghana. A majority of 70 percent of radio is commercial. Probably because that’s where all the money is. I don’t think there is anything wrong with money. Just as long as it does not become more important than setting up a platform where listeners can get involved, speak their mind and come up together with new ways to deal with issues in society. My work has become more and more about the medium itself. Using radio as a tool to build up a community, consciously and deliberately. For me it is more than just a source of information. With strong communities, you build strong regions and with strong regions you build a nation. I think with these kinds of aspirations I am finally at the right place.

At the school where I work I teach my students basic skills in broadcast Journalism. But what I find even more important is that I create a learning environment for them where they can express themselves, develop their talents and become more aware of what it is that they want to do in the media industry. Sometimes I have to push them hard and sometimes I have to just let them play around. I have put their thinking process in the centre of our programs and this has already led to some lively podcasts. I also strongly believe that the formation of a community goes beyond an institution or particular location. We have become virtual communities. The African diaspora is a perfect example of that. We are working towards a culture of world citizenship where you can stay and work at various places, where you form alliances and bridges between different countries and continents. I know a lot of people who share the same view and see the world as their home. The stories I make for media in Ghana, Holland and Surinam become more and more about the connection between these three different countries I got to know so well. I try to form a triangle between them in where I compare, critique and create new cultural concepts for our changing societies. Somehow it is more often the younger generation with whom I share these ideas. They already carry that seed of world citizenship in them. I want to end my presentation with a quote from a renowned philosopher and writer Stephen Biko: ‘The oneness of community is at the heart of our culture. We regard our living together (...) as a deliberate act of God to make us a community of brothers and sisters jointly involved in the quest for a composite answer to the varied problems of life.’

This presentations is done at the conference, Radio Days Africa, in Johannesburg (ZA) June 30th, 2016. Listen here to the audio of the presentation. Pictures from AUCC in Ghana.